Contents

History

Matt Hagen was a versatile actor, whose face was terribly damaged in an accident. He continued acting, masking the wound with an experimental cosmetic cream called renuyu. The manufacturer of Renuyu, Roland Daggett, blackmailed him into working for him. The first step was to frame his business rival Bruce Wayne: disguised as Wayne, he attempted to murder Lucius Fox. The scheme failed.

Daggett was not finished with him, though. His henchmen Germs and Raymond Bell were ordered to kill him, and forced a large container of renuyu down his throat. But rather than killing Hagen, it transformed him into a giant clay monster.[1]

After learning about the powers the renuyu gave him, "Clayface" decided to retaliate against Daggett. He tried to kill Germs at the hospital, but was stopped by Batman. Later, he went after Daggett himself when he was on a talk show, but Batman interfered again. Batman lured him to the tv room, showing the former actor a multitude of his previous roles on the monitors, in an attempt to end the fight peacefully. Instead, this makes his powers go out of control. In a confused fury, he ends up shocking himself when he smashes the controls, resulting in his apparent death. It was later revealed that this Clayface was just a decoy, and that the real Clayface was still out there.[2]

Clayface clashed with the Batman several more times, and eventually was recruited into Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society of Super-Villains. This proved to be a fatal choice; during the Society's final battle with the Justice League, the Flash planted a half-dozen rockets into Clayface's form, and Hawkgirl ignited them. Clayface was sent rocketing into the stratosphere before exploding into atoms. While none of his body was ever recovered, he has not been seen since.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Metamorphosis: Clayface could shape his appearance into other forms, including smaller subjects. Sometimes this would happen automatically, like a reflex. He could also divide himself in multiple creations.

Abilities

Acting: Accomplishing his shape changing abilities, Hagen was also a trained actor, which aided his disguises.